Plasma Kinetics in the Ethanol/Water/Air Mixture in "Tornado" Type Electrical Discharge

TL;DR

This study combines theoretical modeling and experimental analysis to investigate plasma-assisted ethanol reforming into hydrogen using a novel 'tornado' electrical discharge, revealing insights into plasma chemistry and reactor performance.

Contribution

It introduces a new 'tornado' type electrical discharge reactor and provides a detailed kinetic scheme for plasma-assisted ethanol reforming.

Findings

Reactor characteristics are comparable to existing plasma reactors.

Numerical modeling explains the non-thermal conversion mechanisms.

Hydrogen evolution depends on discharge parameters and mixture ratios.

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a theoretical and experimental study of plasma-assisted reforming of ethanol into molecular hydrogen in a new modification of the "tornado" type electrical discharge. Numerical modeling clarifies the nature of the non-thermal conversion and explains the kinetic mechanism of nonequilibrium plasma-chemical transformations in the gas-liquid system and the evolution of hydrogen during the reforming as a function of discharge parameters and ethanol-to-water ratio in the mixture. We also propose a scheme of chemical reactions for plasma kinetics description. It is shown that some characteristics of the investigated reactor are at least not inferior to characteristics of other plasma chemical reactors.